Harding, the Church of Christ institution in Searcy, hews to church teaching on homosexuality (disapproving) and participants say they have written anonymously for fear of fallout. As the website said: "It is part storytelling, part religious and political critique, and partly a manifesto of hope for Harding’s future." Take a look.

I've sought comment from Harding officials.

UPDATE: The group moved up activation of its website. It had been originally set for 9 p.m. tonight. But news began leaking out and the site was activated. Not long afterward, access to it was blocked at Harding.

UPDATE III: See video from Harding president David Burks reading a statement about the website and zine, and see how the story has spread across the blogosphere and on social media in the first Arkansas Times Storify.

FROM H.U. QUEER PRESS

I'm writing you on behalf of a group of former and current Harding University students who identify as gay or lesbian. We have collectively written and compiled a zine about our experiences being gay and lesbian at Harding (an explicitly conservative, religious, anti-gay institution, as you probably know) and have prepared for a large scale distribution of this zine, in physical and electronic forms, for this coming Wednesday and Thursday. We have contacted various bloggers, writers, etc throughout the U.S. who have some ties to Harding or have previously written about Harding in any way and are asking them to consider writing a blog post (or any other sort of mention) about the zine on either Wednesday night after 9pm or anytime on Thursday. Thus I am writing you to consider doing this.

Blue Hog Report has some news on a Republican primary challenge of an incumbent legislator, Rep. Laurie Rushing, by Ernie Hinz of Hot Springs.

Republicans, including at least one from Arkansas, are talking about repealing the Dickey Amendment which prohibits gun research from a public health perspective. But none of them are yet willing to DO anything about it.

Arkansas Times Recommends is a series in which Times staff members (or whoever happens to be around at the time) highlight things we've been enjoying this week.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that an ethics complaint has been filed saying that the exploratory committee Rep. Warwick Sabin created to prepare for a run for Little Rock mayor was a subterfuge to avoid the city ordinance that doesn't allow campaign fundraising to begin until five months before the November 2018 election.Of course it is.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the group behind the first medical marijuana initiative to qualify for the ballot, has responded sharply to yesterday's statement by the Arkansas Health Department that it opposes legal medical use of marijuana.

by Max Brantley

Jul 13, 2016

Most Shared

A rediscovered violin concerto brings an oft-forgotten composer into the limelight.

My colleagues John Ray and Jesse Bacon and I estimate, in the first analysis of its kind for the 2018 election season, that the president's waning popularity isn't limited to coastal cities and states. The erosion of his electoral coalition has spread to The Natural State, extending far beyond the college towns and urban centers that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. From El Dorado to Sherwood, Fayetteville to Hot Springs, the president's approval rating is waning.

Despite fierce protests from disabled people, the U.S. House voted today, mostly on party lines, to make it harder to sue businesses for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of course Arkansas congressmen were on the wrong side.